Correspondence. 255


parents, practically alive. I do not think that the young which are always

bred on fresh water, would be likely to thrive on marine fishes.


E. G. B. Meadk- Wai,do.



TWO EGGS LAID BY THE SAME BIRD IN

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.


Sir, — I have occasionally heard doubts expressed as to whether birds

ever la}' two eggs within twenty-four hours so that I think it is not without

interest to place on record two such instances that, curiously enough, have

taken place in my aviaries during the same week, although during the past

fourteen years I have previously known only of one doubtful case.


The first instance is that of a Rain Quail, C. coromandelica. The

first egg was found on the morning of the 22nd April, and when the nest

was next visited on the following Thursday afternoon it contained four eggs.

I happened to be in the aviary on the afternoon of the next day (Friday)

and was much surprised to find six eggs in the nest. As the bird in question

was the only hen Quail in that aviary, there can be no question or doubt

that she laid two eggs in the twenty-four hours.


The other case is that of a White Call Duck ; this bird had been

sitting on a clutch of ten eggs, which she suddenly deserted after some

eighteen days incubation. I removed the eggs on the evening of Friday,

the 26th, and noticed at the time that the bird appeared heavy as though

she was again going to lay. I re-visited the nest on Sunday morning about

eleven and found it to contain three fresh eggs. I am positive that I

removed all the eggs from the nest on Friday and, as in the case of the

Quail, it was the only duck in that aviary, so that the question of two birds

laying in the same nest cannot arise.


The three eggs, therefore, must have been laid during the very short

space of forty-one hours, and the case is still further remarkable from the

fact that this bird started to lay again during incubation, for there is little

doubt of that having been the cause of the desertion of the first nest.


It would be interesting to know if any of our members could furnish

further instances. J. Lewis Bonhotk.



FOOD OF THE BLACK COCKATOO.


During the visit of the Australian Ornithologists' Union to Tasmania

"the work of the Black Cockatoo {Calyptoi'hyrichus funereus) in searching

for its food in the dead eucalyptus, was very noticeable, these birds literally

shredding the bark off the stringy-bark species and picking out with their

hard strong bills the larvae of injurious insects which destroy the forest

trees, but it was noted that only the dead trees were worked upon."

The Emu.



